Aqueous extract of Antrodia cinnamomea reduced high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice and suppressed adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 cells

Selenium Enrichment of the Edible Medicinal Mushroom Antrodia camphorata by Submerged Fermentation

Selenium (Se) is an essential nutrient element in human physiological metabolism and immune function. Supplementation of bioavailable Se will confer benefit on human life, especially when intake of this nutrient is inadequate. The edible and medicinal mushroom Antrodia camphorata is a unique fungus endemic to Taiwan, which has shown high therapeutic and nutritive value. This study is the first to demonstrate that A. camphorata can assimilate and transform sodium selenite into organic selenium. With an initial concentration of Se (IV) at 10 mg/L in 100 mL of the medium at 25 °C, the total selenium content in Se-enriched A. camphorata mycelia was 1281.3 ± 79.2 µg/g, in which the organic selenium content accounted for 88.1%. Further analysis demonstrated that selenium-enriched polysaccharide was the main form of Se present in A. camphorata (61.5% of the organic selenium). Four water-soluble Se-polysaccharide fractions were separated from A. camphorata, and ACP II was the major fraction of Se-polysaccharide. The scavenging efficiency of Se-polysaccharides on DPPH and ABTS radicals was determined, proving that selenium enrichment dramatically improved the in vitro antioxidant capacity of A. camphorata polysaccharide. Therefore, the selenium accumulation and transformation ability of A. camphorata provides an opportunity for developing this beneficent fungus into a novel selenium-enriched dietary or medicinal supplement.

Modeling Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome in Rodents

Standardized animal models represent one of the most valuable tools available to understand the mechanism underlying the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to seek for new therapeutic strategies. However, there is considerable variability in the studies conducted with this essential purpose. This review presents an updated discussion of the most recent studies using diverse experimental conditions to induce MetS in rodents with unbalanced diets, discusses the key findings in metabolic outcomes, and critically evaluates what we have been learned from them and how to advance in the field. The study includes scientific reports sourced from the Web of Science and PubMed databases, published between January 2013 and June 2020, which used hypercaloric diets to induce metabolic disorders, and address the impact of the diet on metabolic parameters. The collected data are used as support to discuss variables such as sex, species, and age of the animals, the most favorable type of diet, and the ideal diet length to generate metabolic changes. The experimental characteristics propose herein improve the performance of a preclinical model that resembles the human MetS and will guide researchers to investigate new therapeutic alternatives with confidence and higher translational validity.

Antrodia cinnamomea Confers Obesity Resistance and Restores Intestinal Barrier Integrity in Leptin-deficient Obese Mice

Obesity is associated with metabolic disorders. Thus, obesity prevention and treatment are essential for health. Antrodia cinnamomea (AC) is a multifunctional medicinal fungus used for the treatment of various diseases and for preventing diet-induced obesity. Leptin deficiency causes over-eating and spontaneous obesity. The concomitant metabolic symptoms are more severe than diet-induced obesity. Here, we used leptin-deficient (ob/ob) mice as an animal model for over-feeding to study the effect of AC on obesity. We fed C57BL/6 mice (WT, ob+/+) and ob/ob mice with AC for four weeks before performing qRT-PCR and immunoblot analysis to elaborate AC-modulated mechanisms. Further, we used Caco-2 cells as a human intestinal epithelial barrier model to examine the effect of AC on intestinal permeability. Our results suggested that AC reduces lipid deposits of the liver and epididymal white adipose tissue (EWAT) by promoting lipid metabolism and inhibiting lipogenesis-associated genes and proteins in ob/ob mice. Moreover, AC effectively repaired intestinal-barrier injury caused by leptin deficiency and enhanced intestinal barrier integrity in Caco-2 cells. Interestingly, AC significantly reduced body weight and EWAT with no compromise on food intake in ob/ob mice. Thus, AC effectively reduced obesity caused by leptin-deficiency and can potentially be used as a nutraceutical for treating obesity.